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chapter 39
Following the jerky, he took out the same paper bag he’d been carrying earlier—the one dripping with blood.
Once he tore the raw meat inside into small pieces and tossed them, the stray dog caught them skillfully.
Judging by the way he handled it, this wasn’t his first time feeding her.
“Do you feed her often?”
“The mother dog looked starved and skin-and-bone, so… from time to time.”
“So that’s why you came to the market.”
He said “from time to time,” but the mother dog now had a healthy layer of weight on her. He must’ve been feeding her consistently.
What a relief—he wasn’t roaming around causing trouble and extorting people for toll fees like the rumors said.
I lowered one knee to the ground and crouched beside him.
“She’s not barking at me anymore.”
“She only barked earlier because you appeared out of nowhere and startled her.”
As if to show just how gentle she was, Ruberé held out his hand. The mother dog sniffed it and came closer.
He made a gesture for me to do the same, so I extended my hand. Warm breaths puffed against my palm.
“Wow.”
“Dogs usually grow wary when they have puppies nearby, but she must like people.”
“Seems so.”
After tossing her a few more pieces of meat, Ruberé checked each of the tiny puppies huddled together to make sure they were healthy.
He was surprisingly affectionate with them.
“If you want to keep helping them, why not just take them home?”
“……”
“Does the Duke say no?”
“That’s not it.”
In a big mansion, it wasn’t unusual to see horses, dogs, or even the occasional stray cat.
I wondered if he was hesitating because the knights’ dormitory was on the duke’s estate and he felt awkward bringing them in—but Ruberé had another reason.
“There was a dog that followed us on campaign.”
Since the Imperial Knights moved through war zones, many villages they passed were empty.
Apparently, a puppy living in one of those abandoned places must’ve missed human contact, because the moment it saw the knights, it trailed after them everywhere.
“She kept showing up… and I couldn’t just leave her, so I shared a bit of our rations.”
He sounded as if he’d only helped because the dog was being a nuisance, but in such a harsh environment, even a little warmth must’ve meant a lot.
But contrary to my expectation, Ruberé regretted it.
“It was a mistake. I should never have cared for her.”
“Why? If not for you, she might have starved.”
“Because she became too accustomed to people, she walked right up to an enemy scout crossing the border.”
Unfortunately, that soldier wasn’t fond of animals.
Hearing the whimpering, Ruberé rushed over and confronted the soldier holding the puppy.
“When he realized she’d been fed by us, he drew his blade—”
W-wait. He’s going into detail?!
As if reporting a battlefield status, Ruberé began describing everything vividly: “Her hind legs… the skin was…”
The comment sprites sharing my senses reacted immediately:
└ [THE PUPPY!!!!!!!!!]
└ [WHERE’S THE SKIP BUTTON]
└ [AAAAAAAH]
└ [YOU SOLDIER ♬♬♪♪—]
└ [PLEASE STOP THE GORE ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]
└ [I’LL DROP THIS STORY IF THIS CONTINUES.]
My ears burned as the comment spirits writhed in agony.
P-puppies. Focus on the puppies in front of me…
I blurred my focus, let the sound pass through one ear, and emptied my head. Once the sensory feed cut off, the comment sprites stopped screaming.
Ruberé continued, his voice heavy with remorse.
“As a knight, I should have made a swift decision, but I hesitated. Because of that, the dog died… even more painfully.”
It made me realize how sheltered my upbringing had been.
An emperor who fought on the front lines. Knights who stayed by his side. Those who received titles after the war were mostly loyalists of the imperial faction.
Growing up in a noble faction household, these were stories I rarely heard.
“But the war is over now…”
“Still… I’m not confident I can take proper responsibility. I’m not sure I’m capable.”
└ [Feels similar to why the Duke won’t act as Rose’s guardian…]
I guess the connection is kind of there.
There are people who feel responsibility far heavier than others.
After talking this much, I think I get what kind of person he is.
At least now I knew he wasn’t the type to suddenly explode in anger on the street.
Once I finished forming my impression of him, I decided this was the moment to bring up the main topic.
“I actually saw you earlier at the vegetable stand. You saw the pickpocket, right?”
“You saw him stealing money?”
Well… not personally—I heard afterward—but close enough.
When I nodded, Ruberé’s expression turned instantly fierce.
“To think someone would dare commit such a crime on land guarded by our knights.”
Sensing the shift in his aura, the mother dog quickly tucked her puppies behind her.
Until a moment ago, I had wondered why he’d made such a big scene tossing a man in broad daylight.
Maybe… he was holding back.
I quickly changed the subject to calm the atmosphere.
“The display stand collapsed… The owner looked really sad.”
“That’s why I told him to come find me. I said I would compensate him.”
…So that’s what “If you have business, come find me” meant?
Most people… with that terrifying expression… would interpret it as “Never come near me again.”
As if confirming my guess, Ruberé continued:
“But no one has come. Even when I went back, they only said it was fine.”
“…”
Just hearing it, I could practically picture the whole situation.
Okay. Got it.
Now I finally understood how the knights here—including the Duke—communicated.
They cared more about the literal meaning of words than the nuance.
These knights!!
The problem was… this wasn’t a battlefield where short, direct orders were enough.
“Sir Ruberé.”
I brushed off my skirt and stood. Even while sitting, he had been taller than my line of sight. Now I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes.
Then I stretched out my arms.
“Hug me.”
* * *
A sigh echoed through the marketplace alley.
Should I just close the shop…?
The man was born into a farming family. His hometown’s land was rich and fertile, and his relatives all worked the fields.
He, too, was supposed to become a farmer…
But he had a dream.
To introduce his hometown’s vegetables to more people!
So he opened a small shop in the market—a modest start toward his dream. His heart was full of hope.
About an hour ago.
Before the strange commotion broke out in front of his shop and smashed his display stand.
“Are you not selling today?”
“O-oh, no. I’m open. I’m open.”
He snapped out of his stupor at the voice from the doorway.
He’d been sitting blankly, shaken by the rumors that he’d been marked by the lord’s knights.
“What are you looking fo—huh?”
“Mishter.”
It wasn’t a customer who’d come.
It was a tiny little girl.
“Dwa pan bwoke… no… wood ouchie.”
And behind her… a giant bear-like man.
W-why did they come back??
A hulking figure with a body like he could rip bears apart, long messy hair, and scarred knuckles visible beyond his sleeves—a man whose appearance screamed “brawler.”
The very source of the earlier commotion stood before him, and the shop owner trembled.
Then the girl spoke again.
“The knighty… is gonna fix… it.”
“F-fix…?”
She still tripped over words—maybe she hadn’t been speaking long—but that wasn’t the point.
As if her words were a signal, the knight knelt down, set the girl aside, and inspected the broken stand.
“Is it fixed?”
“I—I only propped it up temporarily. The nails that held the legs in place are bent, so we’ll need a carpenter…”
The thick metal nails used to support heavy loads wouldn’t budge with ordinary tools.
But the knight simply pulled out the bent nail—
“Gah—!”
—and straightened it effortlessly with his bare hands.
Then he grabbed the stand’s leg and tapped it with the sheath of his sword—clang, clang—until it held sturdy.
“Wooow,” the girl clapped.
So this is…
He was fixing it.
With his own hands.
Wasn’t he the one who threatened him earlier, telling him to “come find him” without further explanation?
While the man stood in confused silence, the girl rummaged under the stand.
“Oh! Somebody dwopped this.”
“That man earlier reached into a customer’s bag.”
“Oh. So that’s what happened?!”
He’d thought the man emptying his pockets was the victim—turns out he was the culprit who caused the whole mess and then ran away alone.
The resentment he’d felt toward the knight vanished instantly—and redirected to the pickpocket.
“It shouldn’t collapse anymore. Is this fine?”
“Y-yes! It seems even sturdier than before. Thank you.”
“Let’s go. Sir Knight.”
The girl raised her arms, and the knight lifted her effortlessly with one arm.
Without asking for repair costs, without boasting—he simply left.
The little girl waved her tiny hand over his shoulder, and the shopkeeper found himself waving back.
…What kind of pair are they?
But one thing was certain:
That huge knight…
didn’t seem nearly as scary now.
